On the Possibility of Estimating Solar-Radiation from GMS

Solar-radiation is the key factor to estimate evapo-transpiration and to identifythe process of land-atmosphere interactions. Its observation is, however, limitedat the limited number of primary meteorological observatories in any country. This paper presents the fact that the GMS visible reflectivity information and the solar-radiation observed on the ground are linearly related. The GMS visible ray reflectivity data of June and September 1991 and the solar-radiation observations at 13 primary meteorological observatories in Japan are found to fit in simple linear regression with coefficient of determination being greater than 0.92. This shows the possibility of estimating global distribution of solarradiationfrom geo-synchronous satellites.